War. When the word is said, what immediately comes to one’s mind is a battlefield; blaring guns, generals screaming orders as planes roar overhead, with soldiers watching as their comrades have unimaginably gruesome deaths. The same is expected for a novel about war. The main character is enlisted and goes through all of the aforementioned things and then some. However, one book does not fit under this stereotype. Even though a huge theme in this novel is war, not a single gun is fired throughout the entire story. Not only that, but the main character does not share his time in the war until the last few pages of the book. This is because the novel accurately depicts the effects of an actual war instead of a romanticized version of one. By showing the impact of war on …show more content…
This drastic change in opinion happened during both the war in A Separate Peace and World War II. While the second world war was taking place, everyone in America contributed to the war. “Americans focused their lives on the war,” says Carl and Dorothy Schneider. Patriotism took over the country. Americans either enlisted or helped the war effort from their homes; there was no in between. Over five million Americans fought from within their own walls whenever they had time. Volunteers were everywhere, from chipping in and helping prepare for air raids, to learning how to apply first aid, to watching for enemy planes (Schneider and Schneider). The thought that one either contributed to the war with all of one’s might or they weren’t a part of the country was not only popular in America. This belief is also beloved in the best-seller, A Separate Peace, when the war is just starting. In the beginning of A Separate Peace, the characters are all for war, believing that anyone who didn’t enlist is basically an unpatriotic bum. One of the characters even states, “Everybody in this place is either a draft-dodging
Michael C. C. Adams' book, The Best War Ever: America and World War II, attempts to dispel the numerous misconceptions of the Second World War. As the title suggests, Americans came out of the war with a positive view of the preceding five turbulent years. This myth was born from several factors. Due to the overseas setting of both theaters of the war, intense government propaganda, Hollywood's glamorization, and widespread economic prosperity, Americans were largely sheltered form the brutal truth of World War II. Even to this day, the generation of World War II is viewed as being superior in morality and unity. The popular illusion held that 'there were no ethnic or gender problems, families were happy and united, and children worked hard in school and read a great number of books.' (115)
The Wars by Timothy Findley is an anti-war novel set during the First World War. The novel follows Robert Ross, a Canadian military officer, as he suffers through the horrors of the war both on and off the battlefield. As the novel progresses, Robert evolves from an innocent young man to a deeply troubled and broken individual. This loss of innocence plays a great role in Robert’s development as a character and is highlighted by his experiences with sex and death, experiences that eventually leads to his downfall.
The title of this novel, “The Wars” is illusory. Upon first glance, it makes one expect a protagonist who goes to an actual war, uses physical strength to fight on the battlefield and becomes a war hero.While part of that is true, there are also other significances of the war associated with this title. This novel recounts the journey of the protagonist, Robert Ross as he starts out as a shy, introvert and an inexperienced person before he goes to war; he experiences a change in himself as a result of the people and the battle(s) that he fights with the factors in his surroundings. Therefore, “The Wars” doesn’t necessarily mean the war with the enemy but it includes the wars at home, wars against nature and wars of relationships. Which
A society, a place, an attitude, an expectation---all of these contribute to a character’s response to threatening forces. Tim’s insecurity ignites in the Cold War, where the world tatters into two extreme ideologies, and “certain blood [is] shed for uncertain reasons”. Tim remains “politically naïve” until one day a draft notice flies into his pocket. He is conscripted to “fight a war he [hates]”---the Vietnam War. Confusion, rage, exasperation freeze his mind: Why me? I am not a hero! I am too good! I hate wars! But all of them melt into a “silent howl” inside his head. Tim’s summer job in a meatpacking plant allows him to envision himself as a soldier. “Standing for eight hours a day under a lukewarm blood shower”, holding a massive water gun, he “[removes] blood clots from the necks of the dead pigs”. The carcasses and the gore evoke the disturbing images of brutal and merciless battles in his mind. His body shivers and sweats run down in his face, as if he is torturing the political enemies, and their blood is splattering everywhere for absurd reasons. When he goes home, Tim is irritated by the obnoxious smell that “...
War: armed, hostile conflict between different groups with conflicting viewpoints. Though this simple definition may be acceptable to Merriam-Webster, war is a very controversial and complicated subject. Limiting war to the framework of a single definition would diminish the severity and complexity of the issue. Men and women who have engaged in combat often come home carrying a burden of grief and angst. Gruesome images of death or torture can be imprinted in these soldiers’ minds alongside a guilty conscience that may have accompanied their actions during the war. Learning how to deal with these stresses can be extremely difficult. Such is the case for Billy Pilgrim, the protagonist in Kurt Vonnegut’s masterpiece Slaughterhouse Five. Following a plane crash, Billy claims to have traveled to Tralfamadore, a planet far, far away from Earth. The Tralfamadorians teach Billy that free will is only a figment of the human imagination. Even in fiction, meeting little green aliens seems pretty far-fetched, so did Billy really venture through time to see these creatures? No. Billy’s exploits with the Tralfamadorians were all in his mind. Due to brain damage, post-traumatic stress from the war, and reading many science fiction novels, Billy has confused his dreams and coping mechanisms with reality.
towards the war and make it a cause of suffering to me as it is to
War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, written by the talented author Chris Hedges, gives us provoking thoughts that are somewhat painful to read but at the same time are quite personal confessions. Chris Hedges, a talented journalist to say the least, brings nearly 15 years of being a foreign correspondent to this book and subjectively concludes how all of his world experiences tie together. Throughout his book, he unifies themes present in all wars he experienced first hand. The most important themes I was able to draw from this book were, war skews reality, dominates culture, seduces society with its heroic attributes, distorts memory, and supports a cause, and allures us by a constant battle between death and love.
Imagine being in an ongoing battle where friends and others are dying. All that is heard are bullets being shot, it smells like gas is near, and hearts race as the times goes by. This is similar to what war is like. In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, the narrator, Paul Baumer, and his friends encounter the ideals of suffering, death, pain, and despair. There is a huge change in these men; at the beginning of the novel they are enthusiastic about going into the war. After they see what war is really like, they do not feel the same way about it. During the war the men experience many feelings especially the loss of loved ones. These feelings are shown through their first experience at training camp, during the actual battles, and in the hospital.
"What it is Like to Go to War" is a hard hitting portrait of the experience of war and its effect on the human psyche. When an author of Marlantes' stature rubs elbows with Joseph Campbell and Robert Bly, the end result is an eloquent, articulate, and psychologically astute punch to the gut.
War always seems to have no end. A war between countries can cross the world, whether it is considered a world war or not. No one can be saved from the reaches of a violent war, not even those locked in a safe haven. War looms over all who recognize it. For some, knowing the war will be their future provides a reason for living, but for others the war represents the snatching of their lives without their consent. Every reaction to war in A Separate Peace is different, as in life. In the novel, about boys coming of age during World War II, John Knowles uses character development, negative diction, and setting to argue that war forever changes the way we see the world and forces us to mature rapidly.
War as seen through the eyes of Ambrose Bierce in An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge depicts it as truly gritty. The author successfully sends a message of how death is a part of war, and it is not as noble or glorious as one would think it is. Due to popular media, we have this attitude that the protagonist is going to go down in a blaze of glory, and while it may be true for some, it is not like that for everyone. War is rough, dark, and gritty but no one ever wants to talk about those parts of war because it would ruin the fantasy of it.
War novels deal, superficially, with war. But underneath all the blood and horror and carnage lie far deeper social and human issues. The best novels of war, such as Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front and Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls, as well as Bao Ninh's The Sorrow of War, also deal with the makeup and morality of a culture or a society gone wrong. The protagonist of these books, whether real or fictional, often endures a harrowing personal struggle through both a public and private hell and usually undergoes some sort of redemption, even if that redemption results in death.
"War is always, in all ways, appalling." This is how author Gary Paulsen describes war in his novel Soldier's Heart. Soldier's Heart is what we now know as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Paulsen displayed many examples of appalling events in Soldier's Heart. Some events were from deaths of fellow men, or traumatic experiences. Many of these events have scarred many soldiers around the world.
Compare and contrast the attitudes to war as reflected in for the fallen and the send off. 'For the fallen' and 'The Send-off' are poems written demonstrating attitudes towards war. Whilst banyan conveys an idealised, romantic picture of war that depicts the soldiers as heroic and courageous, Owens attitudes towards war are more pessimistic in nature. Owen uses appearance versus reality to show the corruption and misery of war. Binyan and Owen convey their attitudes through the language, structure and poetic devices they employ The attitudes to war in 'for the fallen' are patriotic and romanticised.
War changes people lives, thoughts, and ideas. People never know what truly happens to them until the war is over and they have returned to their normal livelihood. Families are ecstatic and excited to see their sons returning from a dangerous mission such as war. In many instances, people do not understand or fathom the depth of what their child has been through during the period of war. Some authors notice and sometimes try to explain the changes of people who return from war, and use them in poems, stories, and articles. Writers use imagery, irony, and structure in the poems to show a better understanding;using these techniques to help protest of war and the affect it has on everyone involved.